American  Negro  Academy 
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OCCASIONAL  PAPERS  NO.  20. 


American  Negro  Academy 


Alexander  Grummell 

An  Apostle  of  Negro  Culture 

BY 

WILLIAM  H.  FERRIS 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  ACADEMY 

19  2  0 


THE  AMERICAIT  NEGRO  ACADEMY. 

ORGANIZ:eD  MARCH  5,  1897. 


RKV.  ALEXANDER  CRUMMELL,  Foum-der. 
OBJECT': 

Thb  Promotion  of  Literature,  Science  and  Art. 
The  CuIvTure  oe  A  form  oe  Inteli.ectuai.  Taste. 
The  Fostering  of  Higher  Education. 

The  PUBI^ICATION  OF  SCHOI,ARI.Y  WORKS. 

The  Defense  of  the  Negro  Against  Vicious  Assaui^t. 


President 

John  W.  Cromwell 

Vice  Presidents 
Robert  T.  Browne  John  Hust 

J.  E.  K?veggir-Aggrey  C.  V.  Roman 

Recording  Secretary 
T.  Montgomery  Gregory 
Corresponding  Secretary 
Robert  A.  Pelham 
153  Tea  St.  N.  W.  Washington,  D.  C. 

Treasurer 
Lafayette  M.  Hershaw 

Executive  Committee 
Kelly  Miller  George  M.  Lightfoot 

F.  H.  M.  Murray  William  Pickens 

John  E.  Bruce 


OCCASIONAL  PAPERS  NO.  20. 


American  Negro  Academy 


Alexander  Cmmmell 

An  Apostle  of  Negro  Culture 

BY 

WILLIAM  H.  FERRIS 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  ACADEMY 
19  2  0 


\J/  Pendleton  vV/ 
\VC    Printer  V^/ 


ALEXANDER  GRUMMELL 

1819-1898 

FOUNDER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO  ACADEMY 


Accompanying 

OCCASIONAL  PAPER  NO.  20 
The  American  Negro  Academy 


TH!  FLOWERS  COLLECTION 

301-  4^1 


ALEXANDER  GRUMMELL 

AN  APOSTLE  OF  NEGR'  CULTURE. 


ALEXANDER  GRUMMELL 

AN  APOSTLE  OF  NEGRO  CULTURE. 


A  noted  English  lawyer-author  has  declared  that  the  twelfth 
chapter  of  Ecclesiastes  is  the  final  word  of  the  'world's  philos- 
ophy ;  that  no  ancient  or  modern  thinker  has  uttered  a  prof  ounder 
word.  And  in  the  seventh  verse  of  that  chapter  it  reads,  "Then 
shall  the  dust  return  to  the  earth  as  it  was  ;  and  the  spirit  shall 
return  unto  God  who  gave  it." 

Metaphysicians  tell  us  that  through  his  five  senses,  man  is  in 
touch  with  and  in  relation  to  his  physical  environment  and  a 
physical  world,  and  that  through  his  reason,  imagination,  con- 
science, aesthetic  and  religious  intuitions,  man  is  in  touch  with 
and  in  relation  to  his  spiritual  environment  and  a  spiritual  world. 
They  also  tell  us  that  at  death,  the  soul  and  body  merely  part 
company  and  go  their  respective  ways.  The  oxygen,  carbon, 
hydrogen  and  other  chemical  elements  in  the  body  mingle  with 
the  material  elements  from  Avhich  they  came.  And  the  soul  of 
man.  the  ego.  the  center  of  self-consciousness,  recognitive  mem- 
ory and  reflective  thought,  which  has  maintained  its  identity  amid 
the  changes  of  the  physical  organism,  will  survive  the  destruc- 
tion of  that  organism  and  live  on  and  on  in  the  spirit  world, 
embodied  in  whatever  form  and  clothed  with  whatever  garments 
its  ]\Iaker  so  decreed. 

Scientists  tell  us  that  vrhen  you  throw  a  pebble  in  a  stream,  it 
sets  up  a  series  of  ever-widening  circles  imtil  it  reaches  the  shore. 
They  tell  us  that  when  you  utter  an  audible  sound,  you  start  in 
motion  sound  waves  which  travel  on  for  miles  and  miles.  So  it 
is  with  the  influence  of  a  htuuan  personality.  It  does  not  end  at 
the  grave.  It  lives  in  the  lives  that  have  been  inspired,  in  the 
example  set  and  the  thoughts  thrown  out. 

Twenty  years  and  three  months  have  elapsed  since  the  soul  of 
Alexander  Crummell  bid  its  bodily  partner  farewell  and  took  its 
flight  to  its  spiritual  home.  But  Alexander  Crummell's  terres- 
tial  influence  did  not  end  thus.  It  still  goes  on  and  will  go  on  for 
centuries.  W'e  will  briefly  review  his  life  and  career  and  then 
estimate  the  weight,  worth  and  significance  of  the  ideas  which  he 
advocated,  for  which  he  lived  and  which  were  incarnated  in  his 
personality. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander  Crummell,  the  Xegro  apostle  of  cul- 
ture, was  a  born  autocrat,  a  man  born  to  command.  And  men 
insthictively  bowed  before  him.  Some  even  trembled  before  his 
wrath. 


6 


Crummell  was  born  in  New  York  in  1819,  nearly  a  century  ago. 
He  was  the  son  of  Boston  Crummell,  a  prince  of  the  warlike 
Temene  tribe,  who  was  stolen  while  a  boy  playing  on  the  sands 
of  the  seashore.  At  first,  Crummell, with  George  T.  Downing 
attended  a  school  in  New  York  taught  by  the  Reverend  Peter 
Williams,  then  went  to  the  school  in  Canaan,  New  Hampshire, 
which  was  hauled  into  the  pond  by  those  who  were  angry  because 
the  Negro  was  taught  to  read.  Crummell  with  others  took  refuge 
in  a  barn.  They  were  fired  upon  ;  but  Henry  Highland  Garnet 
fireo  a  return  shot,  at  which  they  were  allowed  to  depart  in  peace. 
The  i  Crummell  attended  the  Oneida  Institute,  of  which  Beriah 
Gve-  n  w^as  the  President.  He  became  a  priest  in  the  Episcopal 
Chuxdi,  was  for  twenty  years  a  missionary  on  the  west  coast  of 
Afr:!ca,  during  which  period  he  visited  seventy  tribes.  He  re- 
turned to  this  country  in  the  late  sixties  or  the  early  seventies, 
was  for  a  year  or  two  rector  of  St.  Philip's  Church,  New  York, 
and  for  twenty-three  years  rector  of  the  St.  Luke's  Church  in 
Washington,  D.  C.  The  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in 
issuing  his  race  tracts  and  founding  the  American  Negro  Acad- 
emy, the  first  body  to  bring  Negro  scholars  from  all  over  the 
world  together.  He  died  at  Point  Pleasant,  N.  J.,  in  Dr.  Mat- 
the'v  Anderson's  summer  home  in  vSeptember,  1898,  in  his 
eightieth  year. 

Pie  was  not  as  famous  a  man  as  Douglass,  because  in  the  most 
eventful  years  of  the  i\^egro  race's  history,  from  1850  to  1 870  he 
was  in  Africa.  Vv'her:  he  (ded,  mm  like  Phillips  Brooks  and  Dr. 
Fuller,  of  Rochester,  -ho  were  old  friends  of  his  and  who  knew 
him  intimately,  the  man  and  his  work,  had  already  crossed  the 
myrtic  stream  of  death  and  passed  over  to  the  other  shore.  But 
he  was  a  power  in  iris  own  race  to  the  last.  Still  in  the  late 
forties,  he  delivered  three  addresses  that  attracted  considerable 
attention.  In  181'7  he  addressed  a  colored  convention  at  Troy, 
N.  Y.  And  in  1848  he  visited  Lcfidon  and  spoke  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  .\nti- Slavery  Society,  with  such  fire,  force,  finish 
and  polish  that  he  n'ade  many  friends,  both  for  himself  and 
his  race. 

Pie  visited  Liverpool.  He  so  impressed  the  Bishop  of  the 
diocese,  that  he  was  invited  to  officiate  as  minister  in  the  St. 
George's  Church  at  Everton,  of  which  the  Reverend  Mr.  Eubanks 
was  rector.  The  audience  liad  never  heard  a  colored  man  preach 
before.  And  Crummeil's  dignity  and  bearing  in  the  pulpit,  his 
polish  and  refinement,  his  lucid  exposition  of  the  text,  his  sub- 
limity of  thought,  beautv  of  diction,  and  fire  and  force  of  utter- 
ance for  nearly  an  hour  held  that  cultured  audience  spellbound. 
Crummell  made  history  for  the  race  on  that  Sunday  morning  in 
1848.  And  I  suppose  that  Crummeil's  eulogy  on  Clarkson,  de- 
livered in  New  York  City  in  184(5,  in  its  grandeur  of  thought, 
sublimity  of  sentiment  and  splendor  of  style,  surpasses  any  ora- 
torical effort  of  any  colored  man  in  the  antebellum  days.  From 


7 


that  time  until  his  death  in  1808,  Crummell  swayed  both  colored 
and  white  audiences. 

I  remember  in  the  fall  of  ISiXJ,  a  Baptist  preacher  lectured  in 
Newport,  R.  I.  At  the  close  of  the  lecture,  a  tall,  slender,  ven- 
erable looking  man,  with  an  aristocratic  air,  arose  and  stirred  the 
audience  with  his  heroic  words.  The  Ba])tist  preacher  was  so 
touched  that  he  sought  Crummell  out.  And  then  an  influence 
entered  his  life  that  made  him  a  new  man,  a  stronger  moral  force 
in  the  Baptist  denomination.  I  remember,  too,  when  ]\IcKinley 
was  inaugurated  in  18!'7.  Men  and  women,  old  and  young,  from 
all  sections  of  the  country,  of  varying  degrees  of  culture,  of 
divers  religious  creeds,  came  to  Crummelhs  house  as  a  mecca. 
Some  had  been  thrilled  by  his  sermons  and  commencement  ad- 
dresses ;  others  caught  the  inspiration  of  their  lives  from  his 
works,  ''Africa  and  America,"  *'The  Future  of  Africa,"  and  "The 
Greatness  of  Christ,  and  Other  Sermons."  Today  his  memory  is 
treasured  in  ^^'ashington,  in  cities  of  the  north  and  south,  and 
along  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  Such  was  the  influence  the  im- 
perial Crummell  wielded. 

There  you  have  the  historic  Alexander  Crummell,  the  finished 
scholar,  the  magnetic  preacher,  the  brave,  uncompromising  ideal- 
ist, who  was  dreaded  by  imposters  and  fakirs  and  time-servers 
and  flunkies.  He  was  one  of  those  rugged,  adamantine  spirits, 
who  could  stand  against  the  world  for  a  principle,  but  he  was 
gracious,  courteous,  tender  and  sympathetic  withal.  Tall,  slender, 
symmetrical,  erect  in  bearing,  with  a  graceful  and  elastic  walk, 
with  a  refined  and  aristocratic  face  that  was  lighted  up  by  keen 
penetrating  but  kindly  eyes,  and  siu'rounded  by  the  gray  hair  and 
beard  which  gave  him  a  venerable  appearance,  Vvdth  a  rich,  ring- 
ing, resonant  baritone  voice,  which  had  not  lost  its  power  even  in 
old  age,  with  an  air  of  unmistakable  good  breeding  and  a  con- 
A^ersation  that  flavored  of  books  and  literature  and  art.  Dr.  Crum- 
mell was  a  man  that  you  could  never  forget,  once  you  met  him  or 
heard  him  preach.  He  frequently  said  that  what  the  race  needed 
was  an  educated  gentry,  and  he  was  himself  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  that  rugged  strength,  tempered  with  Christian  cul- 
ture and  a  refined  benevolence,  which  was  his  ideal,  that  the  race 
has  yet  produced.  Sprung  from  the  fierce  Timene  Tribes,  who 
on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  cut  to  pieces  a  British  regiment  near 
Sierre  Leone  several  years  ago,  he  possessed  the  tireless  energy, 
the  untamed  spirit  and  the  fearless  daring  that  made  his  warrior 
ancestors  dreaded.  But  like  the  apostle  Paul,  his  native  strength 
was  mellowed  by  the  Christian  religion. 

There  was  an  ineffable  charm  in  his  conversation.  He  was  a 
delightful  companion,  ever  ready  in  wit  and  repartee,  versatile 
and  resourceful  in  debate,  with  tlie  wide  knowledge  that  is  gained 
by  travel  and  garnered  from  many  fields  of  study.  He  reminded 
UiC  of  \A>ndell  Phillips  as  an  orator,  with  the  impression  of  hav- 
ing an  immense  reserve  power  behind  him ;  he  could  fill  a  large 
hall  by  speaking  in  his  natural  conversational  voice.    He  pos- 


sessed  the  same  keen  Damascus  blade  of  sarcasm  when  aroused. 
Undoubtedly  he  was  the  Sir  Philip  Sidney  of  the  Negro  race. 

In  my  chapter  upon  "The  American  Negro's  Contribution  to 
Literature,"  I  tell  how  beautifully  DuBois  in  his  "Souls  of  Black 
Folk  "  has  drawn  the  figure  of  a  man,  whom  I  regard  in  some 
respects  the  grandest  character  of  the  Negro  race.  Read  the 
chapter  and  read  Crummelhs  book  upon  "Africa  and  America," 
and  then  you  will  recognize  the  greatness  of  Crummell.  Some 
people  say  that  great  Negroes  are  jealous  of  each  other.  But 
read  Crummell's  chapter  upon  Henry  Highland  Garnet  and 
DuBois's  chapter  upon  Crummell,  and  you  will  see  how  kindred 
spirits  appreciate  each  other's  worth  and  value. 

Those  who  are  interested  in  Tuskegee  Institute  will  remember 
that  in  February,  1899,  a  memorable  meeting  was  held  in  the 
Hollis  Theatre  in  behalf  of  that  celebrated  school.  The  Hampton 
and  Tuskegee  Quartettes  sang.  Dunbar  recited  his  dialect  poems  ; 
Dr.  Washington,  as  usual,  spoke  in  an  impressive  and  eloquent 
manner.  But  the  event  that  interested  many  thoughtful  minds 
was  the  paper  of  Dr.  Wm.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois  upon  the  "Striv- 
ings of  a  Negro  for  the  Higher  Life." 

I.    "The  Negro  Apostle  of  Culture." 

It  was  for  such  a  delicately  drawn  portrait,  such  a  halo  sur- 
rounded it,  that  Prof.  William  James  and  other  Bostonians 
doubted  that  it  was  the  likeness  of  a  real  man  and  believed  that 
it  was  the  picture  of  an  ideal,  an  imaginary  Negro.  But  Crum- 
mell was  not  a  dream  creation.  He  was  a  being  who  had  actually 
been  clothed  in  flesh  and  blood,  who  had  actually  trod  on  these 
terrestrial  shores  and  walked  on  this  earth. 

He  was  indeed  the  Newman  of  the  Negro  pulpit.  If  any  one 
desires  to  read  the  romance  of  his  life,  of  his  struggles  to  get  an 
education,  of  his  despair  in  encountering  the  hostility  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  and  the  ingratitude  and  lack  of  appreciation  of  his 
own  race,  and  of  his  bravely  surmounting  his  difficulties,  I  refer 
him  to  DuBois'  "Souls  of  Black  Folk." 

After  Alexander  Crummell,  the  first  Negro  apostle  of  culture, 
had  spent  a  few  years  as  a  student  in  Cambridge  University, 
England,  nearly  a  (quarter  of  a  century  as  a  missionary  upon  the 
west  coast  of  Africa,  he  returned  about  the  year  1870  to  the 
United  States,  the  land  of  his  birth,  and  for  twenty-three  years 
served  as  rector  of  the  St.  Luke's  Episcopal  Church  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.    Then  he  retired  from  the  ministry. 

II.    History  of  the  American  Negro  Academy. 

■  He  had  ])assed  the  three  score  and  ten  mark.  Never  strong  or 
robust  physically,  he  had  lived  a  very  active  life.  It  seemed  as 
if  his  days  of  usefulness  were  over.  But,  no,  this  grand  old 
man  of  the  Negro  race,  nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  endeavored 
to  realize  a  dream  that  he  had 'conceived  when  a  student  in  Cam- 
bridge University,  England.   He  proposed  to  found  and  establish 


9 


the  American  Negro  Academy,  an  organization  composed  of 
Negro  scholars,  whose  membership  should  be  limited  to  forty 
and  whose  purpose  should  be  to  foster  scholarship  and  culture  in 
the  Negro  race  and  encourage  budding  Negro  genius.  He  com- 
municated with  colored  scholars  in  America.  England.  Hayti  and 
Africa.  The  result  was  that  in  ]\Iarch,  189 T.  when  ^IcKinley 
was  inaugiu/ated.  the  most  celebrated  scholars  and  writers  in  the 
Negro  race  for  the  hrst  time  assembled  together  in  the  Lincoln 
^Memorial  Church  and  formally  organized  into  a  brotherhood  of 
scholars.  Dunbar,  the  poet ;  DuBois,  the  sociologist ;  Scarbor- 
ough, the  Greek  scholar ;  Kelly  ]\Iiller,  the  mathematician  ;  Dr. 
Frank  J,  Grimke.  the  theologian;  Prof. John  W.  Cromwell,  the 
historian  ;  Fhxsident  R.  R.  Wright.  Principal  Grisham.  Prof.  Love 
and  Prof.  \\'alter  B.  Ha}'son.  noted  educators  :  Prof.  C.  C.  Cook,, 
the  student  of  English  literature,  and  Bishop  J.  Albert  Johnson, 
the  brilliant  preacher,  were  among  those  present.  Bishop  Tanner, 
of  the  A.  ^1.  E.  Church,  and  two  or  three  other  bishops  were 
enrolled  as  members,  and  such  distinguished  foreign  Negroes  as 
Prof.  Harper  were  added  as  members.  JJie  Academy  seemed 
destined  to  do  for  the  Negro  race  what  the  French  Academy  did 
for  France. 

But  Criunmell  soon  died  :  DuBois  v\-as  elected  president.  The 
industrial  fad  swept  over  the  country  and  men  soon  forgot  the 
Academy.  But  Prof.  John  A\>sley  Cromwell,  the  secretary.  Dr. 
Francis  J.  Grimke  .  the  treasiuxr.  Prof.  Kellv  ]\Jiller  .  Prof.  C.  C. 
Cook  and  Prof.  John  L.  Love,  of  A^'ashington.  D.  C  did  not 
despair.  In  December,  15^)02.  the  Academy  startled  the  country 
by  a  two  days'  session  in  which  a  series  of  papers  were  read  upon 
"The  Religion  of  the  Negro."  The  papers  of  Prof.  Harper,  the 
Rev.  Orishatukeh  Fadiuna  and  Dr.  ]\Iatthew  Anderson  at- 
tracted considerable  attention  at  the  time.  Later  the  "Literary 
Digest"'  noticed  my  paper  upon  "A  Historical  and  Psychological 
Account  of  the  Genius  and  Development  of  the  Negro's  Re- 
ligion." In  December,  19u3,  Archibald  H.  Grimke  was  elected  as 
President.  The  Academy  took  a  new  lease  of  life  and  in  Alarch. 
lOfj.-).  a  brilliant  series  of  papers  were  read  upon  "The  Negro  and 
the  Elective  Franchise."  They  were  afterwards  published  in  an 
eighty-five  page  pamphlet  and  they  remain  today  the  best  dis- 
ctission  upon  Negro  Suffrage  and  Southern  Disfranchisement. 

The  session  of  the  Academy  in  D'-cember.  1906,  was  held  in 
Howard  Lhiiversity,  and  at  that  seisic.:-  .:he  auc^^e^^ce  that  assem- 
bled in  the  small  chapel  of  How; -c  L'river^i^y  listened  to  an 
illuminatino-  discussion  upon  the  ■'Fcc-.^rmc  Condition  of  the 
Negro."  Kelly  ]\Iiller's  paper  upon  '  L^'^cr  Conditions  in  the 
North'""  attracted  some  attention  in  the  Vashington  Post."  I  do 
hope  the  scholars  of  the  race  wih  Mcrpetiiate  tiie  organization, 
which  was  the  dream  of  Crummell's  life.  I  well  remember  the 
Saturday  in  September,  1898,  when  I  received  a  ca^d  from  AA'alter 
B.  Hayson,  Crunimell's  protege,  announcing  that  Crummell  was 


l6 


dying.  I  hurried  to  Point  Pleasant,  N.  J.,  but  Crummell  had 
breathed  his  last  and  his  body  was  carried  to  New  York  City. 
For  two  hours  on  Monday  night  I  walked  up  and  down  the  beach 
at  Asbury  Park.  I  looked  up  at  the  stars  shinhig  so  silently  in 
the  immensity  of  space  and  heard  the  distant  murmur  of  the 
ocean  as  it  rolled  and  broke  upon  the  shore.  In  the  silent  mid- 
night hour.  Nature's  calmness  and  repose  seemed  to  touch  my 
soul  and  then  from  the  depth  of  my  being  came  the  cry,  "Crum- 
mell is  not  dead,  but  he  liveth ;  he  is  now  with  his  God  and 
Maker." 

No  man  is  bigger  than  the  idea  that  dominates  him,  and  that 
he  embodies  in  his  life.  I'f  his  personality  is  grand  and  sublime, 
he  will  live  on  in  the  moral  w^orld.  But  if  his  ideas  are  not 
progressive,  he  will  not  live  long  in  the  thought  world.  Dr. 
Alexander  Crummell  believed  that  the  Negro  belonged  to  the 
genus  vir  as  well  as  to  the  genus  homo,  that  he  could  be  included 
in  the  class  aner  as  well  as  anthropos,  that  he  had  a  soul  to  be 
trained  as  well  as  a  body  to  be  clothed,  sheltered  and  fed.  In  a 
word,  he  believed  that  the  Negro  was  made  out  of  the  same  clay 
as  the  rest  of  mankind,  that  he  was  w^orthy  of  the  same  educa- 
tion and  training,  and  was  entitled  to  the  same  treatment,  con- 
sideration, rights  and  privileges  as  other  men. 

The  question  is,  were  the  soaring  ideals  that  inspired  Dr. 
Crummell's  effort  dreams  of  the  imagination,  or  were  they 
grounded  in  reality  ?  Did  his  perspective  belong  to  the  class  of 
mirages  in  the  desert,  or  did  his  VVeltauschanung  belong  to  that 
class  of  visions,  of  v\diich  it  was  said  in  Proverbs,  "Where  there 
is  no  vision,  the  people  perish?" 

We  can  only  answer  those  questions  by  studying  the  state  of 
the  American  mind  when  the  Academy  was  formed.  In  1776, 
the  high  sounding  and  world  resounding  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  signed,  which  said  that  all  men  were  created  free 
and  equal  and  had  an  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.  And  yet  some  of  the  signers  of  that 
Declaration  held  slaves.  Why  was  it?  The  late  Prof.  Williann 
Graham  Summer  of  Yale  said  that  it  was  because  they  did  not 
regard  the  Negro  as  a  man. 

And  the  whole  slavery  debate  hinged  on  the  question  of  the 
humanity  of  the  Negro,  hmged  upon  the  question  as  to  whether 
he  possessed  the  intellectual,  ethical,  aesthetical  and  religious  po- 
tentialities and  possibilities  which  white  men  possessed,  hinged 
upon  the  question  as  to  whether  the  Negro  did  or  did  not  possess 
a  soul.  The  South  said  that  the  Negro. was  a  beast  and  not  a 
man,  and  was  not  capable  of  intellectual  or  moral  improvement. 
In  Georgia  and  other  states,  they  took  particular  pains  to  see  that 
the  Negro  had  no  chance  or  opportunity  for  mental  improvement. 
In  Georgia  they  would  hue  and  imprison  a  white  man  and  whip 
and  imprison  a  colored  man  who  was  caught  teaching  a  slave  to 
read  and  write. 


II  ■ 

The  great  Calhoun  said  that  "The  Negro  race  was  so  inferior 
that  it  had  never  produced  a  single  individual  who  could  con- 
jugate a  Greek  verb."  Dr.  Crunimell  in  his  paper  before  the 
American  Negro  Academy  upon  "The  Attitude  of  the  American 
Mind  Towards  the  Negro  Intellect,"  wittily  said  that  Calhoun 
must  have  expected  Greek  verbs  to  grow  in  Negro  brains  by  some 
process  of  spontaneous  generation,  as  he  never  had  tried  the 
experiment  of  putting  a  Greek  grammar  in  the  hands  of  a  Negro 
student. 

But  ere  long  arose  Dr.  Blyden,  the  linguist  and  Arabic  scholar; 
Prof.  Scarborough,  who  vrrote  a  Greek  text  book  and  "The  Bird 
of  Aristophanes"  and  the  "Thematic  Vowel  in  the  Greek  Verb  ;'" 
Dr.  Grimke,  the  theologian ;  Prof.  Kelly  Miller,  the  mathema- 
tician, arose.  Colored  students  of  Harvard  like  Greener,  Grimke, 
DuBois,  Trotter,  Stewart,  Bruce,  Hill  and  Locke,  and  Bouchet, 
McGuinn,  Faduma,  Baker,  Crawford  and  Pickens  of  Yale  arose, 
who  demonstrated  every  kind  of  intellectual  capacity.  Then 
Trumbull  of  Brown.  Forbes  and  Lewis  of  Amherst,  Weight  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Hoffman  and  Wilkinson  of  Ann 
Arbor  University,  also  won  honors.  Dr.  Daniel  Williams  distin- 
guished himself  as  a  surgeon,  Dunbar  as  a  poet.  Chestnut  as  a 
novelist,  Tanner  as  an  artist,  and  Coleridge  Taylor  as  a  musician. 

So  in  the  days  when  the  American  Negro  Academy  came  into 
existence,  the  Bourbons  of  the  south  and  their  northern  sym- 
pathizers realized  that  the  Negro  had  achieved  distinction  in  in- 
tellectual helds,  where  they  said  he  would  be  like  fish  out  of  water. 

So  then  they  changed  their  tack.  They  then  said  that  the 
Negro  could  be  educated,  but  education  made  him  "a  builder  of 
air  castles,"  in  the  words  of  their  colored  spokesman,  and  made 
him  useless  to  his  own  people.  They  barred  the  educated  Negro 
from  employment  in  keeping  with  his  natural  tastes  and  aptitudes 
and  previous  training  and  inclination,  and  then  said  that  he 
couldn't  make  a  living.  They  said  the  Negro  was  mentally  in- 
ferior to  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  tlien  reduced  the  curriculum  in 
the  state  colleges  and  high  schools  to  keep  him  mentally  inferior. 

At  the  same  time. they  encouraged  the  Negro  churches  and 
looked  with  favor  upon  laboring  men  and  washerwomen  using 
their  hard  earned  savings  to  erect  costly  churches.  Why  did 
they  look  cross-eyed  at  and  frown  at  the  higher  education  of  the 
Negro,  which  they  said  made  him  impractical,  while  they  smiled 
and  looked  with  satisfaction  at  his  religion,  which  they  didn't 
take  seriously,  but  regarded  a>  a  dope?  Why  did  they  emphasize 
education  and  minimize  religion  for  white  men,  and  on  the 
other  hand  minimize  education  and  emphasize  religion  for  black 
men?  Why  did  they  set  up  Yale  and  Harvard  Universities  as 
the  white's  ideal  of  education  and  Hampton  and  Tuskegee  as  the 
colored  man's  ideal  ? 

These  Bourbons  of  the  south  and  their  northern  symi)athizers 
had  a  dehnite  propaganda  and  programme  regarding  the  Negro. 
Their  plan  was  to  reduce  the  colored  race  to  a  race  of  hewers  of 


12 


wood  and  drawers  of  water,  to  disfranchise  the  Negro,  run  him 
out  of  Congress  and  lucrative  political  jobs  in  the  south,  to  jim- 
crow  him  and  segregate  him.  They  knew  that  religion  would 
act  as  a  narcotic  and  opiate  and  that  it  would  keep  his  eyes  and 
mind  centered  upon  the  golden  streets,  jeweled  pavements,  sap- 
phire walls  and  white-robed  angels  of  the  Nev/  Jerusalem,  while 
they  were  robbing  him  of  the  civil  and  political  rights  which  were 
won  on  the  battlefields  of  the  Civil  War  and  guaranteed  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

They  knew  that  to  educate  him  would  be  to  open  his  eyes,  to 
cause  him  to  think  and  to  prevent  his  being  camouflaged.  They 
knew  that  to  educate  him  would  be  to  make  him  dissatisfied  with 
his  lot  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder.  They  knew  that  to  educate 
him  would  introduce  the  leaven  of  divine  discontent  'v^^o  his 
being.    They  knew  that  to  educate  him         '  '  _  to 

aspire  to  something  higher  than  hard  labor  o.  menial  service. 
They  knew  that  to  educate  him  would  cause  him  to  know  that 
robbing  him  of  the  ballot  was  reducing  him  to  a  pariah  in  Amer- 
ican life  and  society  and  making  him  a  political  outcast.  They 
knew  that  to  educate  the  Negro  vvould  cause  him  to  know  that 
when  he  was  being  jim-crowed  and  segregated,  a  caste  system 
based  on  the  color  of  the  skin  was  being  established  in  America. 
In  a  word,  those  Americans  who  desired  to  rob  the  Negro  of  the 
fruits  of  the  Civil  War  and  to  reduce  him  as  far  as  possible  to  his 
previous  status  as  a  slave,  knew  that  to  educate  the  Negro  was 
to  open  his  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  restrictions  which  they  were 
trying  to  impose  upon  him  were  giving  him  a  social,  civil,  political 
and  economic  status  which  was  lower  than  that  of  the  illiterate 
emigrant  from  EuroDe,  lower  than  that  of  the  Japanese,  Chinese, 
Hindoo,  Indian  and  Filipino.  In  a  word,  they  knew  that  to 
educate  the  Negro  would  open  his.  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  co^or 
of  his  skin  was  a  mark  of  shame  and  a  badge  of  dishonor  and 
that  a  caste  prejudice  based  upon  color,  was  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  and  to  the  democratic  principles  underlying 
this  government.  In  a  word,  they  knew  that  it  would  be  more 
difficult  for  them  to  carry  out  their  programme  with  the  Negro 
educated.  A^nd  these  are  the  reasons  Vv^hv  twenty  years  ago,  it 
was  regarded  as  unwise  and  dangerous  to  give  the  Negro  any 
higher  education  above  the  three  R's  and  a  training  in  the  trades. 
And  most  of  the  leaders  of  the  Negro  race  were  asleep  at  the 
switch  twenty  years  ago.  They  ea2:erly  swallowed  the  sugar- 
coated  and  chocolate-coated  pills.  They  took  the  medicine  which 
their  Anglo-Saxon  friends  offered  because  it  was  honeyed  and 
sugared  with  a  few  fat  jobs  and  contributions  to  churches  and 
schools.  And  while  they  slept,  as  Samson  slept  on  the  lap  of 
Delilah,  they  were  sliorn  of  their  political  and  civil  locks,  and 
awoke  one  bright  morning  to  find  iliat  their  strength  was  gone. 

It  was  a  rude  awakening  that  they  experienced  in  the  summer 
of  1917,  when  the  edict  went  forth  that  all  American  citizens, 


13 


black  as  well  as  white  men.  were  subject  to  the  selective  draft. 
It  was  a  rude  awakening  that  the}-  experienced,  when  they  dis- 
covered that  their  sons  must  cross  the  ocean  and  give  their  lives 
to  bring  a  freedom  to  war-ridden  Europe,  which  was  denied  their 
race  in  this  country.  It  was  a  rude  awakening  that  they  expe- 
rienced when  they  realized  that  they  who  only  experienced  par- 
tial citizenship  in  this  country  were  called  upon  to  make  the  same 
sacrifice  in  blood  and  treasure  as  their  fairer-skinned  brothers, 
who  had  experienced  the  full  blessings  of  citizenship. 

A  Baptist  preacher  whom  I  met  in  St.  Louis  a  year  ago  voiced 
the  thought  of  the  entire  colored  race  vvhen  he  said,  "Ferris, 
what  a  mighty  big  price  we  have  to  pay  for  a  little  freedom." 

It  was  a  rude  awakening,  when  Hog  Island  was  calling  for 
riveters  and  the  Remington  Company  at  Eddystone  for  machin- 
ists, and  yet  would  turn  down  colored  men  who  were  capable. 
It  was  a  rude  awakening,  vdien  colored  men  and  women  who 
passed  the  Civil  Service  in  W^ashingtoii,  D.  C,  during  war  times 
and  were  certified,  were  turned  down  because  of  their  color.  It 
was  a  rude  awakening,  when  colored  soldiers  could  fight  and  die 
side  by  side  with  white  soldiers  in  France,  and  yet  couldn't  visit 
the  same  service  camps  in  America.  And  it  was  a  still  ruder 
awakening,  when  the  Y.  'M.  C.  A.  carried  color  prejudice  to 
France  where  it  had  never  existed  before  and  attempted  to 
jim-crow  and  segregate  the  very  colored  soldiers  who  were  fight- 
ing to  save  France  and  to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  American  mind  twenty-two  years, 
when  Dr.  Alexander  Crummell  gathered  his  colored  friends 
around  him  and  formed  the  Academy.  The  same  reason  that 
led  the  American  mind  to  discountenance  the  Negro's  higher 
aspirations  and  strivings  and  longings  caused  Dr.  Crummell  to 
encourage  them.  He  realized  that  living  in  the  same  country 
with  the  American  white  man,  facing  the  same  problems  and  con- 
ditions, the  Xegro  needed  the  same  kind  of  education  and  train- 
ing that  the  white  man  needed,  or  he  would  lag  hopelessly  behind 
in  the  race  of  life.  General  Armstrong  once  triumphantly  told 
a  class  of  colored  students  at  Hampton,  "Hampton  will  give  you 
enough  education  to  cope  with  any  colored  men  you  may  meet." 
But  Dr.  Alexander  Crummell  saw  deeper.  He  saw  that  the 
Xegro  needed  also  an  education  that  would  enable  him  to  cope 
on  equal  intellectual  terms  with  aii}-  white  men  that  he  might 
meet.  For  that  reason  the  Negro  needed  to  dip  into  literature, 
history,  philosophy,  psycholog\\  sociology,  sciences,  anthropology 
and  ethnology ;  needed  in  a  word  to  be  kept  in  touch  with  the 
trend  of  modern  science  and  the  tendencies  of  modern  thought. 

Dr.  Crummell  was  right.  If  there  ever  was  a  time  in  the 
Negro'"    '  "hen  he  needed  trained  and  vrell-equipped  leader- 

ship, ,o  xiGV.-,  when  the  recent  world  war  has  brought  about  a 
new  earth,  Avhen  new  problems  affecting  Europe,  America  and 
Africa  are  pressing  for  solution,  and  when  a  readjustment  of 


14 


social,  political  and  industrial  conditions  will  be  made,  not  only 
in  Europe  and  Africa  but  in  America.  If  there  was  ever  a  time 
in  the  Negro's  history  when  he  needed  trained  and  well-equipped 
leadership,  it  is  now  when  tens  of  thousands  of  black  Africans 
and  black  Americans  have  demonstrated  on  scores  of  blood- 
stained battlefields  in  France  that  heroism  can  wear  a  sable  hue 
and  be  clothed  in  ebony  ;  when  the  American  Negro  proved  his 
patriotism  and  loyalty  by  subscribing  to  the  Liberty  Loan,  the 
War  Chest,  War  Savings  Stamps  and  by  Red  Cross  service,  and 
when  by  reason  of  his  helping  to  lay  low  the  Prussian  menace  to 
civilization,  he  has  established  his  title  clear  to  recognition  and 
respectful  consideration. 

At  a  time,  when  the  humanitarian  plums  will  be  handed  out  at 
the  Peace  Table  at  Versailles,  at  a  time  when  the  small  and  weak 
nations  of  Europe  will  have  their  day  in  court,  at  a  time  when  the 
oppressed  and  suppressed  peoples  of  Europe,  Palestine  and  Ar- 
menia will  have  their  innings,  now  is  the  time  for  the  Negro  to 
make  his  appeal,  present  his  plea  and  submit  his  case. 

Twenty  years  ago  we  did  not  fully  realize  that  the  treatment 
and  consideration  that  an  individual,  a  race  or  a  nation  received, 
is  determined  by  the  estimate  in  which  the  world  holds  the  indi- 
vidual or  race,  and  that  this  estimate  is  largely  determined  by  the 
estimate  in  which  the  individual  or  race  holds  itself.  And  at  this 
golden  moment  and  rare  opportunity,  we  need  far-sighted  pilots, 
wise  guides,  who  can  seize  and  utilize  the  civic,  political,  economic 
and  industrial  opportunities,  which  may  present  themselves. 

We  have  had  too  many  leaders  who  have  pursued  the  Fabian 
policy  of  watchful  waiting,  who  have  been  the  creatures  of  cir- 
cumstance, who  have  been  the  sport  of  chance,  who  have  been 
determined  by  their  environment,  and  who  have  been  dependent 
upon  the  turn  or  course  that  events  would  take. 

We  need  a  Scipio  Africanus,  who  saw  with  an  eagle  eye  that 
Rome  must  carry  the  war  into  x\frica  and  forthwith  proceeded 
to  take  the  initiative,  made  himself  the  compeller  of  circum- 
stances, himself  determined  the  course  that  events  would  take, 
and  made  himself  the  master  of  Route's  fate  and  the  architect  of 
her  destiny. 

In  the  past  we  have  been  dependent  u]:»on  what  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  friends  have  thought  of  us  and  have  blindly  worshipped 
the  hand-picked  leaders  our  Anglo-vSaxon  godfathers  have  set  up 
for  us,  to  bow  down  to.  The  time  has  now  arrived  for  us  to 
mold  the  opinion  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  friends  by  what  we  think 
of  ourselves,  and  to  select  and  follow  our  own  leaders.  The  time 
has  now  arrived  for  us  to  take  a  hand  in  shaping  our  destiny. 


COXCLUSIOX. 


But  there  are  other  motives  for  education,  besides  bread  win- 
ning and  bettering  one's  material  condition.  I  remember  at  Har- 
vard how  Charles  Eliot  Xorton,  Prof.  Thayer,  the  New  Testa- 
ment Greek  scholar,  and  Dean  C.  C.  Everett,  of  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School,  impressed  students  by  the  grandeur  and  nobility 
of  their  character.  And  one,  knowing  them  instinctively,  felt 
that  they  realized  our  ideal  of  personality.  I  can  see  again  the 
cultured  Norton,  whom  Ruskin  said  was  the  only  American  he 
met  who  was  a  gentleman.  I  can  see  the  tall,  handsome,  erect 
Thayer,  with  musical  voice,  gracious  manners  and  buoyant  walk, 
whom  the  boys  called  ''the  captain."  I  can  see  again  Dean 
Everett,  who  blended  the  wisdom  of  a  Nestor  with  a  transparent 
simplicity  Avho  blended  granite  strength  of  character  with  a 
Christ-like  tenderness.  And  I  can  see  again  that  trio  of  famous 
Harvard  professors,  James,  Royce  and  Palmer — the  first  distin- 
guished by  his  buoyancy  of  spirit,  the  second  by  his  serenity  and 
the  third  by  his  refinement.  And  then  I  can  see  that  famous 
Yale  philosopher,  George  Trumbuh  Ladd,  a  descendant  of  Elder 
Brewster  and  Governor  Bradford,  who  came  over  in  the  ]\Iay- 
flower,  and  who  himself  was  a  splendid  representative  of  modern 
Puritanism.  These  and  a  score  of  other  professors  in  my  colleq-e 
days  were  what  ex-President  Timothy  D wight  of  Yale  would 
call  men  of  high  character,  and  they  made  the  students  feel  that 
merely  to  achieve  character  was  something  worth  the  efifort  and 
striving.  And  Dr.  Alexander  Crummell  thought  so  too.  One  of 
the  blessings  which  this  terrible  war  brought  to  the  world  was  the 
lesson  that  there  are  other  values  in  life  besides  the  piling  up  and 
the  hoardin,s:  of  money. 

I  realize  that  this  is  a  materialistic  a.o"e.  But  I  am  an  optimist, 
not  so  much  because  I  believe  in  the  Englishman  or  the  Amer- 
ican, as  because  I  believe  in  God.  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
universe  is  the  product  of  the  blind  play  of  atoms  or  the  chance 
concourse  of  electrons.  But  I  believe  that  the  intricacy  of  the 
structure  of  the  atoms,  the  law  and  order  that  is  enthroned  in 
the  heavens  above  from  farthest  star  across  the  milky  way  to 
farthest  star  are  silent  but  patent  witnesses  to  the  fact  that  a 
Universa.!  ^lind  is  back  of  and  behind  and  manifests  Himself  in 
the  universe.  I  believe  that  this  Universal  ^Mind  works  in  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  men  and  that  He  is  the  ground  and 
source  and  fount  of  their  noble  impulses  and  higher  aspirations. 
And  I  believe  that  '^Eternal  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for 
righteousness,"  will  continue  to  stir  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of 
men  until  they  see  the  sin  of  damning  a  man  because  of  the  color 
of  his  skin. 


If  we  believe  in  God  and  believe  as  Crummell  believed  that  the 
black  man  can  scale  the  heights  of  human  achievement  and  gain 
the  summit,  if  we  believe  that  we  do  not  represent  a  stage  in  the 
evolution  from  the  monkey  to  man,  but  that,  in  the  language  of 
Terence,  Rome's  tawny-colored  poet,  we  are  men  and  that  noth- 
ing that  is  common  to  humanity  is  foreign  to  us,  a  spirit  will  be 
generated  in  us  that  no  oppression  can  crush,  no  obstacles  can 
daunt  and  no  difficulties  can  overpower.  Quicken  in  the  Negro 
youth  of  the  land  a  belief  in  the  mighty  hopes  that  make  us  men 
and  we  will  write  deeds  upon  the  pages  of  history,  as  our  black 
brothers  wrote  theirs  in  letters  of  blood  upon  the  sunlit  plains 
of  fair  France,  that  will  command  the  attention  and  compel  the 
recognition  of  a  hostile  world. 


OCCASIONAL  PAPERS. 


No.  I — A  Review  of  Hoffman's  Race  Traits  and  Tendencies  of  the 

American  Negro.    ^         KELLY  MILLER.  Out  of  print. 

No.  2 — The  Conservation  of  Races. 

W.  E.  BURGHARDT  DuBOIS.    Out  of  print. 
No.  3— (a)   Civilization  the  Primal  Need  of  the  Race;  (b)  The 

Attitude  of  the  American  Mind  Towards  the  Negro  Intellect. 

ALEXANDER  CRUMMELL.  15  cents. 

No.  4 — A  Comparative  Study  of  the  Negro  Problem. 

CHARLES  C:  COOK.  15  cents. 

No.  5 — How  the  Black  St:  Domingo  Legion  Saved  the  Patriotic 
Armv  in  the  Siege  of  Savannah,  1779. 

T.  G.  STEWARD,  U.  S.  A.  15  cents. 

No.  6 — The  Disfranchisement  of  the  Negro. 

JOHN  L.  LOVE.  15  cents. 

No.  7 — Right  on  the  Scaffold,  or  the  Martvrs  of  1822. 

ARCHIBALD  H.  GRIMKE.  15  cents. 

No.  8 — The  Educated  Negro  and  his  Mission. 

W.  S.  SCARBOROUGH.  Out  of  print. 

No.  9 — The  Early  Negro  Convention  Movement 

JOHN  W.  CROMWELL.  15  cents. 

No.  10 — The  Defects  of  the  Negro  Church. 

ORISHATUKEH  FADUMA.  Out  of  print. 

No.  II — The  Negro  and  the  Elective  Franchise:  A  Sympo- 
sium bv  A.  H.  GRIMKE,  CHARLES  C.  COOK,  JNO. 
HOPE,  JOHN  L.  LOVE,  KELLY  MILLER  and  R£v. 
F.  J.  GRIMKE.  35  cents. 

No.  12 — Modern  Industrialism  an    the  Negroes  of  the  United 

States.  ARCHIBALD  H.  GRIMKE.  15  cents. 

No.  13 — The  Demand  and  the  Supply  of  Increased  Efficiency 
in  the  Negro  Ministry. 

J.  E.  MOORLAND.  15  cents. 

No.  14 — Charles  Sumner  Centenarv. 

ARCHIBALD  H.  GRIMKE.  15  cents. 

No.  15 — Peonage. 

LAFAYETTE  M.  HERSHAW.  15  cents. 

No.  16 — The  Ballotless  Victim  of  One-Party  Government. 

ARCHIBALD  H.  GRIMKE.  15  cents. 

17— The  Ultimate  Criminal  15  cents 

ARCHIBALD  H.  GRIMKE. 
18  and  19 — S^eventy-nine  pages  :  25  cents 

The  Sex  Question  and  Race  Segregation  :    Archibald  H.  Grimke 
Message  of  San  Domingo  to  the  African  Race  :    Theophilus  G. 

Steward,  U.  S.  A.,  (retired.) 
Economic  Contribution  by  the  Negro  to  America  :    Arthur  A. 
Schomburg. 

Status  of  the  Free  Negro  from  i860  to  1870  :    William  Pickens 
American  Negro  Bibliography  of  the  Year  :    John  W.  Cromwell 

tWOrders  for  the  trade  or  single  copies  filled  by  addressing  the 
Corresponding  Secretary  : 

ROBERT  A.  PELHAM,  ^ 

153  Tea  St.  N.  W,  Washington,  D.  C. 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  ACADEMY, 


New  York  :  Robert  T.  Browne,  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  James  W.  Johnson, 
Arthur  A.  Sehomburg,  William  H.  Ferris,  John  K. 
Bruce,  J.       Moorland,  Dr.  dharles  D.  Martina 

Pennsylvania  :    Bishop  J.  Albert  Johnson,  Matthew  Anderson. 

Maryland  :       William  Pickens,   W.  Ashbie  Hawkins,  John  Hurst. 

OMo  :    Theophilus  G.  Steward 

Michigan  :    Robert  W.  Bagnall. 

Missouri   :    John  Love 

Virginia  :  ,  Freeman  H.  M.  Murray,  Dr.  Joseph  J.  France 
North  Carolina  :    J.  B.  Kwegyir—Aggrey 
West  Virginia  :   John  R.  Clifford  • 

District  of  Columbia  :    Kelly  Miller^  Neval  H.  Thomas,  Lafayette  M. 

Hershaw,  Carter  G.  Woodson,  Rev.  Walter  H. 
Brooks,  George  M.  Lightfoot,  Krnest  E.  Just, 
Edward  C.  Williams,  Robert  H.  Terrell 
George  W.  Cook,  Roscoe  C.  Bruce,  John  W. 
Cromwell,  Robt.  A.  Pelham,  T.  Montgomery 
Gregory,  Francis  J.  Grimke,  Archibald  H. 
Grimke,  Arthur  U.  Craig,  Lorenzo Z.  Johnson. 

Georgia  :    Wm.  H.  Crogman 
Alabama  :    Monroe  W.  Work 
Tennessee  :    C.V.!:  Roman 
Africa  :    Orishatukeh  Fad  u  ma 

Honorary  Members  :    Duse  Mohammed,^  J.  Carmichael  Smith,  Henri 
/  O.  Tai^uer,  J.  Casely  Hay  ford 


iiiifilii 

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